The Forum

Visit the Hamlet forum, where you can post questions and answers, links, photos, and discuss elements of Shakespeare's play in greater detail.

Text and Study Guides

• Full text

• The Glencoe Literature Library Study Guide for Hamlet

• E-Notes Study Guide for Hamlet

• The National Arts Center (Canada) Study Guide for Hamlet

Analysis and Criticism

To introduce yourself to the basic elements and broad themes of Hamlet, these essays are very helpful:

• Brown, John Russel. Multiplicity of Meaning in the Last Moments of Hamlet.
• Burton, Philip on Hamlet.
• Calderwood, James L. Madplay, Wordplay, Inner-Play.
• Eliot, T.S. on Hamlet.
• Freud, Sigmund. on Hamlet from The Interpretation of Dreams.
• Jorgensen, Paul A. Hamlet and His Problems.
• Pasternak, Boris on Hamlet from I Remember.
• Also these selected short essays on Hamlet.

For teachers and academics, I would suggest reading these articles on the subject to become acquainted with the more detailed and subtle elements of the study and teaching of Hamlet:

• Donaldson, Peter. Olivier, Hamlet, and Freud, 1987.
• Knowles, Ronald. Hamlet and Counter-Humanism, 1999.
• Snider, D.J. Hamlet, 1873.
• Goddard, Harold C. Hamlet to Ophelia, 1955.
• Kemp, Lysander. Understanding "Hamlet," 1951.
• Brecht, Bertolt and Bonheim, Helmut W. Hamlet, 1957.
• Ornstein, Robert. Teaching Hamlet, 1964.
• Hellenga, Robert R. Hamlet in the Classroom, 1973.
• Skulsky, Harold. Revenge, Honor, and Conscience in "Hamlet," 1970.
• Berry, Ralph. Hamlet's Doubles, 1986.
• Hatcher, O.L. The Ur-Hamlet Problem, 1906.
• Croxford, Leslie. The Uses of Interpretation in Hamlet, 2004.
• Stephenson, Henry Thew. The "Spanish Tragedy" and "Hamlet," 1906.

Hamlet and Imagery

Before delving into your own analysis of the many beautiful and vivid depictions of Hamlet by artists, I would recommend reading some professional academic analysis and criticism on the subject, particularly:

• Michael Benton's and Sally Butcher's Painting Shakespeare, published in 1998 in the Journal of Aesthetic Education. 

Hamlet has been the subject of thousands of portrayals by artists, some of the most interesting, important, and relevant are

• Beggarstaffs poster of Hamlet from 1894.
• Franz Peffer's poster of Hamlet from 1920.
• William Harnett's 1879 painting.
• Malczewski's A Polish Hamlet, painted in 1911.
• Manet's 1877 painting of Jean Baptiste Faure as Hamlet.
• Eugene Delacroix's Hamlet studies are very interesting and important, for a good analysis of them I would suggest reading Robert I. Edenbaum's Delacroix's "Hamlet" Studies, published in 1967 in Art Journal.

Ophelia is a complex character that embodies a variety of symbolism and metaphors, for these reasons she has been the subject of countless artistic depictions by talented artists.  For a close examination of these elements and meanings, I would suggest studying these paintings:

• Ophelia and Hamlet (1883,1884) by Mikhail Vrubel.
• Ophelia (1851-52) by Sir John Everett Millais
• The three different paintings of Ophelia (1889, 1894, 1910) by John William Waterhouse.
• Ophelia by Antoine August Ernest Hebert from 1877.
• Ophelia by Arthur Hues.
• Ophelia by Paul Delaroche.

Hamlet on Stage

• Herbert Child's essay On Elizabethan Staging of Hamlet.
• James Thomas writes about the 1884 production by Wilson Barrett.
• Volker Canaris writes about Peter Zadek and Hamlet
• Paul Hadfield reviews Michael Bogdanov's 1983 production of Hamlet at the Irish National Theater, a production with a "pronounced Marxist thrust."
• A theater report on the 1981 Mickery's production of Hamlet.
• Kanadehon Hamlet: A Play by Tsutsumi Harue.
• The 1970s-1980 Soviet production of Hamlet starring Vladimir Vysotsky.
• Actors as Hamlet on stage and screen through the ages.

Hamlet on Film

• M. Burnett's article about Michael Almereyda's take on Hamlet (2000).
• The 1964 Soviet film production of Hamlet by Kozintsev starring Smuktunovsky.

William Shakespeare

• Erne's Reconsidering Shakespearean Authorship.

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Last update: 2/7/2011